WILLIAM BOYLE

FIND CELTIC MUSIC

William Boyle

Biography

From the CD Booklet " Bagpipe Virtuoso "

Born of Scottish parents at Kaira, near Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island in 1929, Bill Boyle received his first piping instruction at the age of five when he learned ' Come O Maiden' and The Barren Rocks of Aden'from his father. His great Uncle, David Finlay took over and remained his teacher until Bill was 14.

One of Bill Boyle's first public appearances was with the Greymouth Highland Pipe Band at the Coronation Parade for George V1 in 1936. Between the age of nine and fourteen he also developed a separate reputation as a Highland dancer, winning during the period all major events in both South and North Islands. He was by now regarded as a child prodigy in both these Highland arts.

His first success as a competition piper was at the Motueka Games on New Years Day 1940, and later that year, when Bill had just turned 11 , he won a medal for being youngest piper at the Dunedin Queen's Birthday Competition. He won his first A Grade event at the age of 15, at Palmerston North, and his first A Grade Championship at Auckland when he was 18. Bill moved across to Christchurch at the end of 1946 to begin his career in the printing trade which lead eventually to his appointment as the Canterbury University Printer - a post he still held at his death.

You can listen to short samples from some of the tracks from this artist using the player below.

YOUTUBE

Threads of Sound

The downloads on this site are provided by Threads of Sound. They also distribute music to iTunes, eMusic, Spotify and many others. If you want to sell your music on all celtic then you register it via Threads of Sound.www.threadsofsound.net

MASTHEAD

Our current header image was taken by Nick Bramhall and you can find the original here.